Over the past 12 months, Australia has seen a dramatic surge in financial scam activity, with criminals adapting increasingly sophisticated, technology-fueled tactics to steal from vulnerable members of the public, new data from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) reveals. The new statistics, published in advance of Australia’s Scam Awareness Week, track scam attempts between October 2025 and June 2026, recording an 18% year-on-year increase in fraudulent activity that cements scams as one of the most pressing ongoing financial threats to Australian consumers. Official figures from the National Anti Scam Centre already show that Australians lost a collective $2.18 billion to scammers in 2025, and ANZ’s latest trend data indicates total losses for 2026 are on track to outpace that figure significantly.
Ben Verhoef, ANZ’s lead on scam prevention and analysis, explained that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence have reshaped how scammers operate, eroding many of the red flags consumers have long been taught to look for. “Scammers now leverage AI tools to craft more convincing, professional messages with flawless grammar and formatting,” Verhoef said. “For years, we advised people to watch for typos and odd fonts as warning signs, but scammers have largely overcome those telltale weaknesses.”
Of all tracked scam tactics, fraudulent goods and services schemes linked to online shopping remain the most common way scammers target consumers. Impersonation schemes, investment scams, and romance scams also rank among the most prevalent, with romance and friendship scams recording the fastest growth in customer losses of any category. ANZ’s analysis also identified seasonal patterns in scam activity, with sharp spikes recorded during the end of the Australian financial year and the annual university intake period.
That seasonal peak puts international students, one of the most vulnerable demographics targeted by scammers, at particularly high risk, Verhoef noted. Criminals now use language translation technology and professional interpreting services to communicate with students in their native languages, eliminating language barriers that once limited attacks on this group. “Many of these students are young, and they often don’t have experience verifying whether a communication is legitimate or a threat,” Verhoef explained. “Scammers exploit their fear to get them to comply with demands immediately.”
Verhoef shared alarming examples of scams targeting international students, including schemes where criminals impersonate police or government officials from the students’ home countries to coerce payments, and recruitment plots that offer students thousands of dollars to rent or sell their Australian bank account credentials after they graduate. “Once scammers gain control of a student’s account, we lose visibility into who is actually controlling the funds, which lets criminals move illicit money across the financial system without leaving a trace back to themselves,” he said.
Despite the sharp rise in scam attempts, ANZ’s data brings a note of positive progress: the bank reported a 24% drop in customer scam losses over the reporting period, with more than $100 million in at-risk funds saved or recovered by the bank’s security systems. Customers also contributed to this success by aborting more than 476,000 suspicious payments after noticing mismatched recipient details. ANZ emphasizes that there is no shame in falling victim to a scam, and urges anyone who suspects they may be targeted to reach out for support immediately.
Verhoef added that the bank continues to adapt its security infrastructure to keep pace with evolving scam tactics. “We’re constantly improving our ability to identify fraudulent transactions,” he said. “The earlier our detection tools flag suspicious activity and intervene, the better outcome we get for customers. Our in-house teams continuously monitor shifts in the scam and fraud landscape to update our detection rules to match new threats.”